Multibillion-dollar chat app WhatsApp will let users make voice calls, it was announced today.
Its makers said that in the second quarter of 2014 it would begin rolling out support for voice comms for iOS and Android devices with Windows Phone and BlackBerry support planned for a later date.
Announcing the new service at a …

Airbnb, the online home-rental marketplace, is in talks to raise funding from private equity firms that would value the company at a sturdy $10bn.
New York City's Manhattan skyline
Those kind of valuations are par for the course for today's net startups really, but it's still a strong vote of confidence for a company that's …

Hands on
Motorola has followed up its hit Moto G comeback smartphone with a 4G version, and an even cheaper variant, the 3G Moto E, both revealed today.
The Moto E The new Moto E
We got a chance to have a brief play with the new pair.
Last year, Nokia became king of the budget smartphones with its Lumia 520 Windows Phone – but …

Facebook plans to buy speech recognition and translation app maker Mobile Technologies for an undisclosed sum.
The free-content ad-network said on Monday that it had agreed to acquire the outfit, adding that MT's "amazing team" is "behind some of the world's leading speech recognition and machine translation technology".
Once …

Amazon's much-hyped Fire Phone was the talk of the town when it finally appeared in June, but the buzz died down quickly, and these days it seems like the e-commerce giant can hardly give the thing away – not that it isn't going to try.
On Monday, Amazon slashed the price of its mobe to just 99 cents, provided customers sign up …

Qualcomm is reportedly getting ready to acquire high-speed 60 GHz WiGig chip-maker Wilocity, according to a report out of Israel.
According to financial site TheMarker, the mobile silicon vendor is putting a $US300 million price tag on the acquisition (original here).
Qualcomm, along with Marvell Semiconductors, was part of an …

A teardown report on Google Glass is raising eyebrows over suggestions that the augmented reality headset costs as little as $80 to produce.
Researchers with the TechInsights' teardown.com service placed the bill of materials (BOM) of the device at a mere $79.78. The report, which considers the cost of components ranging from …

Travis Kalanick, the chief of taxi service app Uber, has denied that his company is about to open a new funding round that would value it at over a billion dollars.
Kalanick tweeted that the company hadn't spoken to a single investor about raising new cash injections since November 2011, after reports suggested that Uber was …

Microsoft has used the annual E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles to announce the launch pricing for its new Xbox console and – surprise, surprise – it's UK gamers who will be paying more than anyone else for the kit.
US consumers will pay $499 for a bundle including the Xbox, Kinect gesture control system, and a single Xbox …

Microsoft has reportedly slashed the price of Windows 8.1 for anyone willing to install the operating on a device that sells for fewer than $US250.
Bloomberg cites “people familiar with the matter” as saying Microsoft usually sells Windows for $50 a pop, but is floating the idea of a $15 price tag for OEMs working on low-priced …

NBNCo has released its Corporate Plan (PDF)for 2012-2015, updating the projected costs and build speed for the project.
Costs have risen: the organisation now says it will require an extra $1.4 billion of capital expenditure to construct the NBN. Total capital expenditure is now projected to be AUD$37.4 billion, up from AUD$35.9 …

Penguin has agreed to hand over $75m along with costs to sort out US antitrust allegations over ebook price fixing.
The publisher had already agreed to settle with the Department of Justice and has put the price tag on the deal to pave the way for its merger with Random House.
Penguin is the last publisher to settle the case. …

Microsoft is cranking up the price of its Datacenter edition of Windows Server 2012 for the forthcoming R2 release – it's up a whopping 28 per cent on today's price tag.
The Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter edition, which offers unlimited virtualisation rights, will cost $6,155, according to the new licensing data sheet [PDF]. …

It's been 14 months since Facebook debuted on Wall Street and the company has finally rebounded to its initial public offering share price of $38.
On Tuesday, the free content ad network's stock rose 7 per cent to $37.96 - just a whisker away from its 18 May 2012 IPO price tag.
Facebook saw its shares hit repeated snags: first …

It starts with the kind of loopy idea most likely to emerge in local government (the lowest of Australia’s three tiers of government): Marrickville Council in Sydney had conceived the idea of boycotting Israeli goods and services.
This was so popular it's partly attributed to the Greens missing out on the seat of Marrickville in …

Toy manufacturer Mattel has inked an undisclosed deal with Google to turn its View-Master product into a "digital experience" for kids.
The retro stereoscopic toy has been rebooted for youngsters as an "immersive 360-degree" virtual reality plaything, apparently.
Mattel said it now works with Google's virtual reality headset …

Having failed to set the world on fire, BlackBerry's flagship Z10 smartphone is now being touted at knockdown prices.
The touchscreen-driven Z10 was BlackBerry's comeback device when it was launched at the end of January. But it was priced alongside top-end devices from Apple and Samsung with premium tariffs - more than £30 per …

BT should slash its wholesale prices for competitors that access the former national telco's copper network, comms regulator Ofcom said today.
Operators such as BSkyB and TalkTalk could then pass on those "real-terms" cost cuts to their customers, the watchdog added.
Ofcom is proposing that BT's Openreach biz, which is subject …

HP has announced an all-flash version of its 3PAR P10000 single tier storage array delivering the same performance at 70 per cent less cost.
This configuration can have up to 512 solid-state drives, of unrevealed capacity, and should deliver the same IOPS performance as the P10000 V800 model with some 1,900 300GB 15K hard disk …

Amazon is making a bid to steal customers from online marketplaces such as eBay with a new option to “make an offer” on items.
The firm is introducing the option on Amazon.com for folks to offer a lower price for products in the fine arts and collectibles sections initially, and will then be expanding the service to other items …

Mobile giant Vodafone has reportedly been mulling over a number of takeover plans, including the possibility of scooping up cable company Liberty Global – Virgin Media's owner.
According to Reuters, which cited five anonymous sources close to the matter, Vodafone could see Liberty Global's European operations as a natural fit …

Virgin Media is once again hiking up the price of its broadband service, while at the same time championing its cable network.
The telco has begun telling subscribers who are only signed up to Virgin Media's broadband offering that their bills will increase by £1.50 a month from October this year.
It comes after the company, …

UK businesses that rely on a third party pricing system on Amazon were hit by an hour-long software glitch on Friday night, with items being sold for just 1p.
Some retailers complained that RepricerExpress's technical cockup, which happened between 7pm and 8pm on 12 December, could leave them bankrupt.
A number of small …

US retail giant Best Buy is anticipating bumper sales of GoPro's Hero4 products, which are set for release on Sunday.
Best Buy has tripled the amount of space GoPro gizmos take up in 500 of its stores, according to the Associated Press, so as it can start promoting the video camera maker's latest product line in the run up to …

Fanbois can now pre-order Apple's iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 online, after the company unveiled its latest fondleslabs on Thursday.
Depending on the spec of the latest iPads, customers can expect to wait anything between two and six working days before the devices are shipped, according to the UK version of Apple's online store …

The wait is almost over for footballers, Arab oil magnates, the fanbois elite, Croydon-based lottery winners, or anyone else with a money to burn: a diamond-encrusted Apple Watch will hit the shops next year with an eye-popping price tag.
The gaunche-wear, a ‘pimped up’ version of the Watch, comes plastered with eight rounds of …

Lenovo will finally get to close the deal on IBM’s x86 server division on 1 October – after slicing a few hundred million off the price tag.
The Chinese tech firm will finish the acquisition with a closing purchase price of $2.1bn, which is a little lower than the original $2.3bn price tag because of a change in the valuation of …

Review
Kingston’s SSD division have been a bit quiet lately but now they're back in the limelight with the V310 960GB. This is the latest model in the company’s SSDNow V300 series of drives aimed at the budget/entry level end of the market. At 960GB it’s the largest capacity Kingston SSD to date.
Kingston SSDNow V310 960GB Kingston …

GoPro, the maker of video cameras for those who like to mix danger with their hobbies, has added two new models to its range: the GoPro 4 and and the GoPro Hero.
The GoPro 4 follows the GoPro 3, and is available in black and silver editions. Like a posh credit card, the black version is better than the silver one.
The black …

Frantic fanboi investors might be freaking out today as Apple stocks appear to have lost 85 per cent of their value over the weekend, with the price dropping from around $645 to an opening price of $92.22.
But fear not, Apple lovers. The apparent plummet is just a bit of share shuffling to try to reignite investor interest in …

It's difficult not to mention Google in the same breath as Facebook these days – and that's especially true when one considers the initial public offering the dominant social network is reportedly planning later this week.
According to Bloomberg, which cites two anonymous sources familiar with the plans, Facebook's much- …

Apple has reportedly agreed to work with American Express on its new iPhone 6 payment system - which is now just nine days away from being unveiled by Cupertino.
The latest rumour once again springs from the Re/Code blog, which cites those ever reliable (or not so much) sources familiar with the situation.
But there will be …

Google has named the next four areas in the US to get its gigabit-a-second fiber broadband.
The advertising giant said on Tuesday it will next roll out high-speed connections to 18 cities in and around Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; Raleigh-Durham, NC; and Nashville, TN.
Charlotte city officials had indicated they were expecting …

Microsoft pushed back the release of its Xbox One console in China to the end of 2014 on Sunday, without explaining why the launch of its product in the People's Republic had been delayed. The Indian launch is expected to take place tonight.
GeekWire reported that Redmond needed "a bit more time to deliver the best experiences …

Sony has said it won't compete on price as it prepares another attempt to invade the tablet computer market.
The Japanese firm is about to start flogging its latest fondleslab, the Xperia S, in the US for $399 for the 16GB model, competing toe-to-toe with similar tablets from Samsung rather than lower-priced gear from Amazon and …

Apple is setting up for a massive rollout of its new Watch device, if rumors are to be believed.
A report from Taipei's DigiTimes cites industry sources as the source in a report suggesting Apple has ordered enough chips to power between 40 and 50 million wrist jobs.
If correct the report indicates that Apple has high hopes for …

Chip giant AMD took the wraps off the latest in a series of graphic cards on Saturday when it revealed the Radeon R9 285, which it claims is speedier than rival Nvidia GTX 760.
The company revealed its new card at its "30 Years of Gaming and Graphics" shindig yesterday.
AMD said that the Radeon R9 will be released on 2 …

Apple has updated its MacBook Pro notebook line, adding a slightly faster processor and more memory for the cheapest models.
The company said the update will double the memory for models Apple describes as "entry-level" MacBook Pro Retina screen notebooks. The systems will retain their starting price of $1,299 and will now sport …

India is joining the world of exotic particle research, announcing US$235 million worth of funding for a neutrino observatory in the country's south.
Approval for the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), proposed in 2013, means construction of the underground complex can now begin.
The 1,300 metre deep cavern under the …

China’s inexorable rise as a hi-tech military superpower reached another milestone this week as it showcased a range of new drone aircraft remarkably similar to US machines but pitched at a lower price point to attract buyers from the developing world.
The Zhuhai airshow in southern China’s Guangdong province was the platform …

A Scottish distillery is celebrating the return of the first ever space-matured batch of whisky.
Back in 2011, the Islay-based Ardbeg distillery sent several vials of whisky to the International Space Station, where they were spun around the earth at 17,227 mph, orbiting 15 times a day for almost three years.
The astronauts up …

Microsoft has wrapped up a bunch of pre-Chrimbo licensing price hikes for channel partners to deliver to customers at the start of next month.
Redmond handed out a summer treat by bumping up volume licences for UK firms from 1 July as it aligned pricing to the Euro. These rises ranged from 1.7 per cent for Open Classic to 25.9 …

Apple will reportedly not unleash a wearable device at Cupertino's iPhone 6 event on 9 September. And - when the iWatch does arrive - rumours suggest it could carry a $400 price tag.
It apparently means fanbois will have a longer than expected wait for the iWatch, which according to Re/Code - citing secret sources - involves …

The springtime hype of Wolfram Alpha may have died down to a quiet squeak from academics still somewhat excited by the search-engine-lite-mathematics-heavy web product, but from today developers can tinker with its API.
Code junkies can now slot Wolfram Alpha into their own apps. The company confirmed yesterday that it had …

Review
A couple of weeks ago, BlackBerry released a limited edition series of Passport phones plated with 24 karat gold. Priced at $999, the run was limited to just 50, each one numbered. To which you well ask, "Why?"
Gold Plate My BlackBerry Passport Missed out on BlackBerry's own special edition? Goldgenie makes the case for …

Yet another analyst firm has placed a low price tag on the hardware comprising Google Glass headsets.
Researchers with IHS said in a teardown analysis of the augmented reality platform that each headset contains a bill of materials (BOM) of $152.47.
According to IHS, Google uses parts that cost $132.47 per Glass headset, while …

Nokia is back in consumer electronics with an iPad rival, the new N1 tablet, just six months after Microsoft snorked up its phone division. The Finnish firm has said that many more devices will follow.
Youtube Video
The Atom-powered, Android-based, mini-sized N1 enters a crowded marketplace with a price tag of just $250. It's …

A pair of Melbourne security professionals have developed a $150 auto-dialer safe cracker that replicates a machine worth tens of thousands of dollars and sold only to military customers.
The unit launches automatic brute force attacks against group two combination locks used in high-security environments like ATMs and gun safes …

Updated
Microsoft may not have been listening to the rumbling of discontent over some of the new "features" coming with Xbox One, but Sony certainly has.
Sony's new PlayStation 4 'It's the games, stupid'
Sony unveiled the new PS4 console at this week's E3 gamers conference in Los Angeles, and it undercuts Redmond Xbox One by $100, …